Portrait » LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ask baseball managers what they

think about the dreaded shift http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , and most of them have the same answer.It’s not a problem if the hitters don’t make it one.“There’s an easy way to combat that,” Oakland’s Bob Melvin said. “Just hit the ball the other way.”It’s a simple enough solution, though certainly an obvious one. Who among us, after all, hasn’t screamed at a batter to push the ball the other way or even bunt for a sure hit when the defense is loaded up on one side of the infield?The guys in the dugout surely have, even if job security dictates they do their screaming silently.“If a guy can use the whole field, they’re not going to shift you,” the Marlins’ Don Mattingly said.Unfortunately, guys don’t use the whole field anymore. They haven’t for some time because they play baseball to make money and the players who make the most money try to hit the ball as hard as they can to the place they’re most comfortable hitting it.Hitters aren’t going to adapt. There’s no real incentive for them to go the other way, even when all the numbers add up.So while managers at this week’s winter meetings talked about players adjusting to situations and shifts, their real audience is the guys in the dugout. And they John Kruk Jersey , for the most part, aren’t listening.Push one down the third base line for an easy hit? You’d have better luck getting Manny Machado to hustle down to first.“The majority of the hitters, I’d say 90 to 95 percent, say to heck with it, I’m going to try to hit a homer and a double,” said Kansas City manager Ned Yost. “Our numbers for singles as a baseball league last year dropped way down. And you just lose strategy, you lose the ability to steal bases. You lose the ability to hit and run or bunt if you want to.”In other words, you’re losing a big part of baseball.The shift, if you haven’t noticed, is killing baseball. Maybe not by itself, but as part of a new analytics culture in the game that doesn’t value steals Greg Luzinski Jersey , sacrifice bunts, hit-and-runs or any kind of strategy that doesn’t always make sense when all the numbers are crunched.Major League Baseball has noticed, mainly because attendance was down last season and so were hits. Singles have been in decline for the last five years, and the league average of .248 was the worst in 46 years.Meanwhile, for the first time there were more strikeouts than hits in the game, and the World Series — at least on the Dodgers‘ side — was a badly flawed microcosm of what the game has become.That’s a big reason why baseball’s competition committee is looking at doing away with the shift, a move Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he is open to considering. Though baseball tends to move slow, there’s an outside chance both the commissioner’s office and the players’ union could agree to do something about the increasing use of the shift before next season.Banning the shift, of course, won’t magically make all the problems of the game go away. It might not change much at all, if you believe the analytics that show the shift mainly takes hits away from slow left-handed power hitters.But it’s a step toward making baseball look like baseball again. And it’s a step toward being more proactive when it comes to winning back fans turned off by the slow pace of games and the interminable periods in games where nothing ever seems to happen.“I just think that shift http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , it makes the game much, much more boring in my opinion,” said Yost, one of the few managers to take a stand against the shift.Thankfully for baseball, there is an easy solution.Two infielders on each side of second base. Both with at least one foot on the infield dirt.You know, like baseball used to be played.The guess is that it’s likely to happen, if only because no one but pitchers and the people in the analytics department have any love for the shift. That includes Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who used it so much last season that at times it seemed like third baseman Justin Turner was spending more time on the other side of the second base bag than in his normal position.Roberts said he believes baseball is a better game without the shift, though for now his immediate plans are to increase the time his hitters spend hitting to the opposite field in spring training to try to combat it.Here’s hoping they won’t need that extra practice.It’s time for the shift to go. ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mike Trout enjoyed a little pregame celebration and then went right back to work.Trout had an RBI double in his first home game since signing a record contract and agreeing to spend 12 more years with the Los Angeles Angels, who beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 in an exhibition game Sunday night.Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer in the first game of the annual preseason Freeway Series between the teams separated by 35 miles on the I-5.Trout got several large ovations from the Angel Stadium crowd after an energized pregame rally outside the stadium to herald his $426.5 million commitment to stick with the Angels for what he says will be the rest of his career.The seven-time All-Star then doubled to left field off Ross Stripling in the third inning Mitch Williams Jersey , driving in Jonathan Lucroy with the Angels’ first run.Pujols cracked his third homer of the spring in the fourth inning off Dylan Floro. The three-time NL MVP begins his 19th big league season next week with 633 homers, sixth-most in baseball history.Stripling yielded one run in three innings of three-hit ball for the Dodgers, who will have the versatile right-hander in their rotation to start the season. With Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill unable to pitch next week due to injuries, Stripling will get the Dodgers’ second start of the year against Arizona on Friday night.“It’s nice to have some definitive answers,” said Stripling, who made 21 starts and 12 relief appearances last season. “It’s pretty crazy. The first thing that comes to mind is I’m proud of being the first guy they call on when stuff hits the fan. It’s important, and something I don’t take lightly.”Felix Pena started for the Angels and racked up nine strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings of three-hit ball.Max Muncy shook off a quiet spring with early back-to-back doubles, driving in Corey Seager in the first inning for the Dodgers.The Dodgers tied it with three runs in the seventh, including Cody Bellinger’s two-run single.Trout agreed to stay with the Angels in part because of his respect for the talent rising through their farm system. Angels fans got a good look at one of those elite prospects when Brandon Marsh made a diving catch in center field and smacked a two-run single in the eighth.NOTES: Angels LF Justin Upton exited with a sprained left big toe in the first inning after running into the wall while chasing Muncy’s first double. Upton barely played in spring training due to knee tendinitis. … The Dodgers signed RHP Justin Grimm to a minor league deal before the game. The former Cubs reliever spent spring training with Cleveland. … Hill is wearing a brace to stabilize his strained left knee, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. Hill is expected to be out one more week.UP NEXTThe Freeway Series continues Monday in Anaheim with RHP Kenta Maeda taking the mound for the Dodgers and right-handed reliever Ty Buttrey starting out for the Angels.